Sunday, September 14, 2008

Preparations for the little munchkin have been keeping us busy, hence the lack of blogging for a while. The house is really starting to feel like home, and just in the nick of time.

The nursery is nearly finished! We have a few more pictures to hang, but it's pretty close. We really wanted a fun, playful room - and one that was gender-neutral since that's still a surprise for us. We managed to pull it together on a fairly reasonable budget as well! Check it out:

Crib:Childcraft Contemporary from Target - recommended by Baby Bargains. Easy to put together and quite sturdySheet:DwellStudio Circles from TargetMobile: Hand-me-down from a friendGiraffe: Relic from my own childhood bedroomChanging table: A bookshelf my grandpa made years ago, with a few baskets from Pier one and a contoured changing pad. Cover is Tiddliwinks from Target.Mirror with mobile: From local Ithaca artist Werner Sun. LOVE his stuff!Curtains:Barnslig from Ikea.Bookshelf: From my college days...World Market, I think.Lamp: A great shower gift from my Mom...from Target, I think.Quilt: A handmade gem from my Mom's friend Diane - complete with bright colors and safari animals.Rocking chair: An antique from my Grandma Hall. With a new seat cushion from Pier One.Dresser: Another relic from my childhood decorated with some fantastic shower presents from family and some artificial flowers from our old house.

Friday, August 15, 2008

When you walk in the front doors of our house, you go up six stairs to get the main living area (and six down to get to the garage.) When we embarked on laying bamboo floors throughout, we decided to save the stairs for a later date. That was largely because we knew they'd be a challenge. The economical bamboo that we bought for the rest of the house ($3,000 for 1,400 square feet!) was only 3/8 inch thick, and the manufacturer didn't provide any coordinating stair pieces. (See photo to the right.)

Now that we're ready to put wood on the stairs, we have a little dilemma. The only bamboo stair treads that will fit out space cost $80 each - a grand total of $1,200 with shipping, which is nearly half of what we spent on the rest of the house! That means we're likely going to need to go with some other type of wood for the stair treads - which could cost as little as $300 depending on what we pick. But how do we handle this aesthetic dilemma? My initial thought was to try to match our flooring as closely as possible, but then I found these cool pix that use totally different kinds of wood - which seems to be a great way to embrace the problem. Any thoughts?